Newspapers face considerable challenges as the global economic collapse robs us of advertising revenues and the emergence of vibrant digital media robs us of readers. There isn't an editor in Britain, Europe or America who hasn't spent considerable time over the last few years wrestling with these issues. It can mean having to consider reductions in marketing spend, slimmer editorial resources and so on.

It sounds difficult, but if you're Eynulla Fatullayev, you'd relish working in a journalistic environment where these were the toughest challenges you faced. Because Fatullayev's problems are of a different order altogether. He is editor of the Azerbaijan Daily and he's currently serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Last week, Amnesty International gave him its special annual award for journalism under threat, in recognition of his efforts to pursue impartial, investigative reporting which holds institutions and governments to account.

He's paid a heavy price for trying. In 2004, he was beaten up in the street after criticising the government. In March 2005, the newspaper he worked on, Monitor, closed after the murder of its editor, Elmar Hüseynov. Two years later, after reporting that senior government officials had ordered the killing of Hüseynov, he faced death threats. Shortly afterwards, he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for libel.

And since that conviction, he has been sentenced to an additional eight-and-a-half years for an assortment of crimes: terrorism, incitement of ethnic hatred and tax evasion.

It puts wrestling with budget cuts into perspective.

As editor of the Observer, I agreed to accept the award in Fatullayev's absence. The Observer is proud to help highlight his predicament. After all, it was a direct result of a full-page open letter in this newspaper from a London lawyer, Peter Benenson, in 1961 which led to the establishment of Amnesty International. In that letter, Benenson pledged to highlight the plight of those who were "physically restrained from expressing an opinion which he honestly holds and which does not advocate or condone personal violence". He quoted Voltaire as an inspiration: "I detest your views, but am prepared to die for your right to express them."

In Azerbaijan, one seems more likely to die for expressing views the government detests. That can't be right, can it?

• Since Amnesty first highlighted his case, more than 14,000 people from across the world have written letters of support to Fatullayev. To read more about their campaign of support, go to http://tinyurl.com/mrb5de